Sweetest bumps that I can remember on belleayre run today. Like western. I heard winnisook too firm.
More detail: on
Saturday it was super firm on the first few runs, as firm as I remember it getting without being straight up ice. Then it softened, but I stopped around noon. It was probably primo in the afternoon. On Saturday, they blew on yahoo and belleayre. This led to the wonderful bumps on Belle on Sunday. I bet that the bumps on upper yahoo were sweet but I did not make it there Sunday. Fun run with some of the boyscout families showing them the mountain. I got one run in with a ripper dad which was fun because 80 percent of my skiing is waiting for someone or showing the mountain (which I enjoy in a different way). It is fun to open it up for 1400 feet of vertical. The wet snow on lower Yahoo/blower snow was fun, particularly fun in those stable Jskis : )
Sunday: Much less firm on Sunday into pretty good darn snow by 930 am. Bumped into a mini society of skiers who come every Friday and Sunday, meet in lower lodge at 830 and ski. My family all wanted to skip sunday, so I got some instant Karma after not 'fighting' them as they hung out at the club and goofed around with other kids - everyone has to find their own level of passion for skiing. The oldest gentlemen was in his mid 70s, and they were really talented skiers. We had some nice conversations on the gondi and chairs covering a range of topics. I jumped into the Belle bumps up top that were super sweet. I love that feeling under foot on soft bumps (relative rarity here in the east usually reserved for a short window on spring days).
Was hoping to post more, but the
Rivian killed it on the way up and down. No one had range anxiety in our crew of 4 which was interesting. Probably 4-5 groups asked about the car, and in Phonecia on main street had a lovely conversation with the owner or manager of the Shandaken Inn. When I told her the Catskills are a relative charging wasteland, she invited me to charge at their lovely inn and have a drink. Discovered a new place. Going EV has become a bit of an adventure (though that may depend on whether you are half full or half empty). Also 'trickle' charged off a normal outlet at the Norway Ski Club, getting 16 miles of range over night (haha). I launched more than a few boyscout dads on the 0-60 in 3 seconds (a bit slower in my snow tires hahah - I hope I am not ruining them but can't resist). Even the big diesel truck dudes have a different tune after a launch or two.
On high speed
charging, the Rivian prepped the battery because I navigated to a high speed charger probably not that far from where Rip lives, 1/2 mile from Taconic pkwy. While the charger was rated for 150 kw, I pulled 180kw within 30 seconds of hooking up. Harv - this was my incoherent blather yesterday saying that it was likely a 190kw unit - physics means you can't pull more kw than a charger offers.
That means about 500 miles an hour. In 20 minutes the car pulled in 144 miles of range (which is the max Rivian advertises on its own charging network) and 205 miles of range in 31 minutes (I was shocked by that). The 205 miles in a vehicle the size of a Tahoe cost me $39.99 (haha). This type of charging is the most expensive, to put market incentives into using the high speed chargers only when you need them. The charger was in a parking lot with a diner and grocery store. I actually stopped the charge through my phone about 45 minutes in because we were not finished eating our lunch, and still had 10 minutes of pre super bowl shopping to do. I forgot to look between 20 min and 31, but by 31 the charge rate dropped to 95kw, either to protect the battery or because the battery was getting hotter. Even with that, during a normal lunch where i was trying to move the family along asap, we humans were slower than the chargers. I live farther from the mountains than some, so this works at well. This Saturday we will have a lovely lunch in saratoga while the car pulls some juice about 200 miles into our trip.
Range wise we were getting about 290 on a tank up and 311 down, probably due to going downhill. Pretty impressive as the temps were mostly below 32. It seems range does not take a significant hit until you get into 20, and then you can avoid it by tricking the car and turning on your heaters the last few minutes while charging (this preheats the battery unintentionally, like driving really fast). Presto, warm battery and better efficiency.
Only mistake was that I did a leg work out on Friday (seeing how out of shape I was going into XMas week have been working out 4-5x per week and it is finally kicking in. Man things take longer when you get a little older : ) )
PS: I had extra battery going into the Taconic charger and opened it up a bit. This thing handles wickedly at speed.
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